On 12 November The Melvins – one of the most influential cult bands of the last fifteen years – made a special appearance at De Vleeshal. The Melvins gave a live performance of their specially composed soundtrack for three films by American artist Cameron Jamie. The Melvins only gave three such performances in Europe in 2004: in Paris, in Vienna and at De Vleeshal.
Photo(s): Lex de Meester
The Melvins` music is in a class of its own. It has been hugely influential on some of the seminal bands of the past fifteen years. Cameron Jamie (1969 Los
Angeles, lives and works in Paris) works in a variety of mediums, ranging from performance to photography and film. The three films for which The Melvins
composed the soundtrack performed at De Vleeshal, have been inspired by Jamie`s fascination for rituals: both age-old rites and new ones evolving on the outer edges of society.
For Kranky Klaus Jamie travelled to the remote mountain villages of central Austria, where he recorded the `Krampus ritual`. On the night of 6 December villagers await not only a benevolent Saint Nicholas but also, anxiously, the Krampus: masked, mythical beasts who force their way into people`s homes, handing out violent punishment to those believed to have misbehaved in the preceding year.
In Spook House Jamie portrays the inhabitants of the white working class suburbs of Detroit in the weeks running up to Halloween. In late October, homes are transformed into ghost houses, gardens into cemeteries (gravestones and all) and kitchens into mausoleums where torn off `body parts` are prepared for cannibalistic feasts.
Jamie`s acclaimed film BB highlights LA`s teenage wrestlers, who `act out` the popular television wrestling matches. However, unlike the television fights, these encounters are no hoax. Kids jump from garage roofs and fly at each other with ladders and garden furniture. Combined with The Melvins powerful,
claustrophobic soundtrack, the black-and-white footage of these brutal fights depicts an existence Jamie likens to `purgatory`.
exhibitions
tags: cameron jamie,
the melvins
